It’s not everyday that a company goes through so much public embarrassment, but it seems like just another day for Full Tilt Poker. Train wreck after train wreck, Full Tilt Poker seems to be the little engine that could, continually trucking along despite bleak prospects.

Full Tilt Poker’s dramatic descent into the abyss all started on Black Friday, when their domain was seized by the U.S. Department of Justice, and their funds were frozen. Then, they were told to stop all operations. It soon came to light that U.S. players were owed a staggering $150 million, and players started getting impatient when other sites that had been seized paid their players back within 3 months. Next up, there was the lawsuit filed by poker pros against the company, and the owners. The deadline for U.S. poker players to file a claim also passed recently, when the 3 month anniversary of Black Friday came up. Last week, Full Tilt Poker got their license renewed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel.

This week’s bit of drama is a financial scandal. It turns out Phil Ivey owes $6.2 million to Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker sponsored Phil Ivey back in the day, and by the looks of it, they were also a loaner to the pro. It turns out Ivey wasn’t the only pro changing hands with Full Tilt Poker, as it has been reported that poker pro, David Binyamine was also lent money.

The likelihood that other poker pros had this arrangement with Full Tilt Poker is high, with already two prominent poker players guilty of this. With the way things have been going for Full Tilt Poker, would it really surprise anyone?

Ladbrokes, Britain’s biggest betting firm has been in talks with Sportingbet since June over an acquisition deal. Ladbrokes has kept information in regards to the deal under wraps, not sharing information about the deal, or the progress being made on it.

Ladbrokes is a winner on all fronts but one; online gaming. That’s where they are the weakest, and their biggest rival in that arena is William Hill. Acquiring Sportingbet would change the game for Ladbrokes, giving them exposure into online gaming, and giving them a new means of revenue.

Today on a conference call, Richard Glynn, the Chief Executive of Ladbrokes said that when there is more news to share, that they would deliver it to the market.

Glynn has stated that Ladbrokes is interested in acquiring what shareholders want; something that will deliver value and have organic growth. He further went on to say “We will continue to look at non-organic things where they deliver shareholder value, accelerate our core capabilities and where we will not take on any unmitigatable regulatory risk.”

Unlicensed websites are illegal in Turkey, and as a result, analysts have speculated that the deal will likely happen for Ladbrokes, as the decision to get rid of the Turkish business is the most practical thing to do.

Earlier in the year, Ladbrokes pursued a merger with 888. They pulled out of the deal in April, after four months of talks.

As the leading online gambling software provider, Microgaming always manages to do well to live up to that title. With continuous dedication in developing and releasing new games annually, it’s no wonder that Microgaming is the online casinos industry favorite for online gambling software.

With four new releases for this month, Microgaming has done good, releasing four different games that will appeal to all kind of players and skill. All of these games can be downloaded, or played on Flash or QuickFire. platforms.

The first game of the four released is Isis. Isis is based on the video slot game, and also like its predecessor, Wheel of Wealth. As a multiplayer game, players enjoy being able to interact with other fellow players, and also share the wealth. Besides a unique bonus round that gets shared to all players in a game, there’s also free spins, and wild symbols. Isis can be downloaded.

Triangulation is the second game, which plays a lot like a traditional slot game. Featuring colored triangles, it really is as simple as it gets. It is available on the Flash and QuickFire. platforms.

Springo is the third game. It plays like roulette, featuring a bingo draw machine that draws out coloured and numbered bingo balls onto a roulette wheel. Players make their bets on which number and color they think will show up. This table game operates on the
Flash platform.

The final game offered is Mount Olympus: The Revenge of Medusa. This 5 reel, 25 payline slot game features wild symbols, and lots of free spins. It is available on the QuickFire platform.

Check out these new Microgaming games today!

X Factor is one of the most popular reality TV shows among punters in the UK. Thousands of dollars is spent at online sportsbetting websites every year when the finale of the competition is aired. This year was no different, except for the fact that a scandal arose in the online sportsbetting market.

Three employees for Virgin Media, one of the show’s producers, made £16 000 in bets on the final of the competition. They had unique access to the company’s voting data and used it to interpret the outcome of the show.

Luckily, the sportsbetting website at which they placed their bets caught on to their scheme very quickly. The company includes an integrity division that keeps an eye out for any suspicious activity and the scammers were found out almost immediately.

Shortly after, the UK Gambling Commission acted quickly to ensure that the players bets would be voided. However, hundreds of other players’ odds were affected. The outcome of the competition was not changed, but the odds were. Now, the online betting company must compensate players who were affected by the scam with thousands of dollars.

When the Olympics come around, officials are always concerned about the prospect of match fixing and maintaining the integrity of the sport. As the London Olympics approach, the IOC is tightening its reigns on the sportsbetting industry and Jacques Rogge is getting ready to fight illegal sportsbetting.

Currently, illegal online betting costs the industry $140 billion every year. Aside from these costs, Jacques Rogge is worried that illegal betting and match fixing will eat away at the integrity of sports in general and the Olympics.

New technology has seen illegal betting increase by over 70% in recent years. If scandals begin taking place on a global scale, it will take years for the IOC to recover.

The UK, France, Australia, Switzerland are all working together to create a set of rules and regulations that will keep the upcoming games from being corrupted by betting scandals. The games are over a year away, giving authorities plenty of time to come up with ample preventative measures to keep the Olympic games safe from type of illegal betting activity that creates scandals.

The online gambling industry is still a bit rocky, as operators continue to struggle to recover from the global economic crisis. PlayTech is one of the few operators that is seeing improved profits in the online gambling sector, thanks to the company’s expansion into the American online gambling market.

According to a recent report, PlayTech saw an impressive profit increase over the last quarter of 2010, as revenue increased from 14% to 21%. The biggest contributors to this growth seemed to be PlayTech’s online poker and online bingo divisions. These two markets have become increasingly popular over the past year, and PlayTech is certainly taking advantage of the plentiful opportunities within them.

PlayTech’s profits seem to have also been helped by its expansion into the American market. The company has been careful not to violate any current laws in the country, but it has managed to maintain a profitable presence by helping run state lotteries.

Because of this, PlayTech is likely to be favoured when the American online gambling market is legalized (which many politicians are hoping will happen this year). Once this happens, PlayTech will continue on its financial upswing into 2012 and beyond.

In an interesting turn of events the iGaming Super Show in Europe will feature a guest speaker from a country where online poker and other games are still illegal. It has been confirmed that Frank J. Fahrenkopf, the current President of the American Gaming Association will be the keynote speaker at the convention in Dublin in May.

The interesting aspect here is that at a time when his home country has a Congress full of Republicans who are thought to be anti-online gambling, Fahrenkopf is widely regarded as one of the biggest proponents of online gambling in the United States. To that end, industry insiders are expecting a speech from him that will at least touch on the subjects of the status of Internet online gambling in his homeland.

He is also expected to speak on the online gambling market and how it will be affected globally when America decides to legalize the past time and enter the global community. The American Gaming Association has softened its position concerning online gambling as technology has advanced and they can be assured now that restrictions can be put in place to limit the amount of money that people have at their disposal to bet.

Imagine selling a domain name for $10 million? Well, when the owners of www.gambling.com put that domain name up for sale that just how much money they hope to make. Media Corp. is the company that owns the rights there and they hope they’ve come up with the right asking price. According to published reports several private-equity firms and online gambling companies have already expressed interest.

In other news…In these tough economic times its good to know that there are still people looking to hire and not fire or lay off . Internet online gambling professionals Caspian One are looking to recruit for the ever expanding world on online gambling. They need to find the kind of forward thinking individuals that are a good fit for the fast paced world of Internet online gambling, and it’s good to know that online casinos are looking forward while many other industries are upon hard times.

Finally….There might be some infighting in the world of online gambling if several recent reports from the online wires are to be believed. It seems that Malta and the UK have been trying to stop Cyprus from banning most forms of online gambling and that’s why a bill has been delayed there. However, theCypriot Finance Ministry insists the bill needed more work and that’s the real reason it hasn’t moved forward.

When it comes to promoting its casino games, All Slots online casino is the best. This popular online gambling destination has the best ideas for making sure that its players are always active by trying out any new games that the operator releases. All Slots does this with its impressive and unique Prize Patrol promo.

As part of this promotion, players are encouraged to try out the new games that All Slots has launched within the past few weeks. All players who play the casino’s newest games earn the chance to win their share of a massive $10000 prize pool.

In order to be eligible for this amazing promotion, all you have to do is wager a minimum of $20 on any one of the casino’s new games. For every $20 wagered, the player earns one entry into the draw for these impressive cash prizes.

This money, you can try out Reel Gems, Retro Reels, Robin Hood and Mad Dash. There is a great deal of buzz going on over the internet about Reel Gems and Retro Reels, as these two games introduce the brand new ReSpin feature. So, we highly recommend taking part in this month’s Prize Patrol promo.

It is no surprise that online gambling is a popular activity in the UK, one of the few countries that openly supports the industry. What is shocking, however, is that online casino market has seen a 40% increase in traffic in just one year.

A study conducted by Neilson has revealed that there were 3.2 million more visitors at various online gambling websites across the web. This tops popular social networking site Facebook, which only saw 2.2 million new visitors from 2009 to 2010.

The casino operator with the most growth was Camelot, which saw a stagger 114% increase in 2010, going from having a population of 4.4 million to 9.4 million in just one year. This is partially due to the fact that Camelot runs the UK’s national lottery. However, solely-online based companies like Party Gaming brought in almost 900 000 new visitors.

The online gambling industry can only go up from here. While it struggled during its inception, online gambling is now one of the internet’s most popular attractions.